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Monthly Highlights - March 2017

March 31, 2017

So the last day of March (and the fact that I needed to do a highlights post) nearly passed me by because my mind is so full of all the things that need to be done before Camp NaNoWriMo that I still haven't done. But I shall survive, and you guys will still get a Monthly Highlights post.

Let's do this thing.

So March was definitely a less busy month, as far as months go. I got a lot done - though, not much of it can go in the 'monthly highlights' section, because a lot of it had to deal with writing. Go figure ;). But some interesting things besides writing did happen in March ...

- Apparently I hit 90 followers this month (email and GFC)?! You guys are the best. <3

- I won some books from participating in an Indie E-Con, and so I will have some beautiful little incentives to keep me writing during Camp NaNoWriMo. Or perhaps my idea of bribing myself to write with books will backfire and I'll end up in a corner reading while my wordcount suffers terribly. Who can tell *shrugs*.

- I made more of a set-in-stone plan for what I'm going to do with Killing Snow this year, and I'm MADLY excited about it xD.

- I realized that, out of all my 90+ books that I own, very few of them are dystopian and my current WIP (Killing Snow) is quite dystopian/sci-fi. This fact is sad. This fact needs to be fixed. Know of any good dystopian or sci-fi books, anyone? xD

- I had an accidental NaNoWrimo. My wordgoal that I set for myself this month was 15k - and guess what? I hit 49,348 words (including the words I wrote in my incredibly-detailed story outline). I would have written those last few words to hit 50k, but I told myself that I would take a little break before Camp NaNoWriMo comes around, because I burn out fast xD.
Also, Killing Snow (my current WIP) was sort of slaying me slowly throughout the whole month. And (as the girls in my chat call me Sav) some of my friends wondered if it could have been better titled ...

- I finished the outline for novel Killing Snow. It's incredibly detailed (for me, at least), and it's just over 6k words long. But now I have a path to follow when I rewrite Killing Snow into a novel, instead of traipsing around in the wilderness and getting hopelessly lost and probably killed. xD

- I've been getting majorly attacked by plot bunnies. Why does this always happen to me right when I actually have a legit project that I need to get done?
Some of said plot bunnies include; a retelling of the 100 Dresses (which probably won't get written, because its poor plot bunny is slowly dying, but you never know) and two books entitled 'All That Haunts' and 'Death Comes Early'. They want to be written, so I scribbled down the titles and one-sentence hooks for them in a document and immediately shoved it aside so that I don't get distracted during Camp NaNoWriMo.

Okay, I should get onto sharing a snippet, otherwise more plot bunnies are going to wiggle their way into my brain. That won't be helpful. Moving on (basically unedited work, as usual - and I took out a name because #spoilers)...

*cringes because those covers look terrible together* Three of those were actually schoolbooks (A Tale Of Two Cities, Animal Farm, and Pride And Prejudice) but I included them anyways because they're fiction books, so they kind of count. Anyways ...

- A Branch Of Silver, A Branch Of Gold by Anne Elisabeth Stengl. Definitely the best book I read this month - and it was reread at that! But gracious do I love this thing. It's beautiful and strange and magical and all-around wonderful. Her writing style is unique and I LOVE it <3. Also, the characters are GOALS, each and every one of them. This is most definitely a book that I'll be rereading again (what is this phenomenon?!), so I give it a full five stars.

- Pride And Prejudice by Jane Austen. Not a book I would have chosen to read (Emma was the first Jane Austen book that I tried to read, and I ended up being like 'uh ... nope' and putting it down because classic, older books and me almost never ever click. Sadly.) - but school decided that I should, so I did. Not the best, not the worst, but THE CHARACTERS (who's already guessed that that was what I was going to say?). Seriously, Jane Austen did an amazing job with her characters, I really admired that. So this book gets 3 1/2 stars.

- More Burning Youth posts. Obviously. Like this. Andthis. *flails over the wonderfulness of BY* (also this because it basically shares the title of a gorgeous song my sister wrote + composed and I kind of stared at it in shock for 1.7 minutes when it came through my Blogger feed)

- One of my favorite blogs in the blogosphere, Musing Of An Elf, celebrated its SIXTH YEAR of being a blog. This seems like an impossibly and wonderfully long time to be blogging to me :D. (also, Christine did a post about her epic character, the Dragon, from her Burning Thorns novel and I may or may not have squealed wildly over the whole post and I may or may not have failed to comment because #whereistime *smacks myself* xD)

- Deborah O' Carroll did one and two posts about how to read a Diana Wynne Jones book, and I LOVE them both to death and now desperately need to read another DWJ book (preferably Howl's Moving Castle, because it's my favorite <3).

- Tracey Dyck graced us with some of her gorgeous writing and my only response is 'how is she this good'? xD

- Abbie did another music video and it is beautiful and GLORIOUS and I love it and all of you should go check it out *shoos you away*.

Well ... there won't be as many ramblings as usual, seeing as Camp NaNoWriMo is going to take over life for awhile. So there will probably only be three or four-ish posts in April, and I won't be bouncing around on the blogosphere so much (*cringes because I'm already behind when it comes to comments*). But at least I won't die :D.

- How To Liven Up Your: Main Character is probably going to be coming. I think we have ... about four posts left in this series? That could change, but there it is.

- A review of Jesseca Wheaton's A Question Of Honor, which looks like it's going to be AH-MAZING.

So there's my March in a nutshell, and now I shall bid you adieu and race off to the land of insanity. Camp NaNoWriMo is upon us in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

~ Savannah Grace

How was your March? Do you have any suggestions for good dystopian/sci-fi books? What are your plans for April, writer-ly or otherwise?

43 comments
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YOU PUT MY BLOG POST ON "ELSEWHERE ONLINE"!!!!! Savannah, that truly made my day!!! I am so glad you like Cheval's paintings as much as I do!! :D And good luck with your writing! You got this!! :D *hands you chocolate* Many blessings ~ Morgan

Good luck on NaNo! Unfortunately, I don't read much dystopian (although I am starting the Hunger Games this week... *gulps*. That'll be new for me. I'm doing Camp, and hopefully it will be a major success! Good luck again! My birthday is also this month (unfortunately, it is on Easter again :( ) and hopefully I'll be getting some new books for that.Your snippets are so intriguing- I wants to read your stuffs now. Like, RIGHT NOW. Finish this book, Savannah! I MUST READ IT! thefloridsword.blogspot.com

Ooh, Hunger Games - I love those books to death. They're DEFINITELY not everyone's cup of tea, but I've re-read that series so many times xD.

You're doing Camp, too? Awesome! *all the highfives* Thank you - good luck to you, too ;). And happy (really early xD) birthday! I'll probably forget to wish you one on Easter, so might as well say it now xD.

Looks like you had a pretty good month of writing and reading. I like to pretend I write and read a lot... =DToday for Camp Nano Wrimo I'm just hoping to read everything in my novella that I've written so far and then write a page or two. Camp Nano Wrimo sneeked up on me. For some reason I thought it started tomorrow. xD

My March has been pretty good. I can't believe it is already APRIL!!!! UGHHmmm...dystopian\sci-fi....Oh, oh...I have an idea!Ok, I'm weird, but you could do one about a girl from another land who is going to be Queen. But, there is a problem (of course), there is an assassin trying to kill her. He stalks her everywhere, and wears a mysterious, black cape. She seeks help from her stepfather (who says she's insane) and he tries to place her in an asylum. *I don't really write sci-fi or read a lot of it, but since you seem to like assassins, then here you go.*xD(Note to self: I don't think that's even sci-fi) *cackles*

I was so happy when I saw you'd posted!! Savannah words are always a highlight of the day. <3Sci-fi/dystopian. . . hmm. My favorite sci-fi STORY is probably Star Wars. I haven't found much dystopian I like (if Counted Worthy falls into that category, it'd probably be my favorite), and haven't had much luck with science fiction BOOKS. But I haven't tried very hard--pretty just The Firmament Series and The Space Trilogy. I would recommend The Firmament (did you finish those?) but they're not my favorite. The Space Trilogy. . . I dunno. I enjoyed the first two and there were some really neat things in the last one, but I didn't just love them. Much as I love Narnia, I'm not always happy with Lewis' other works. I felt like he got needlessly gross and mature in The Space Trilogy, which bothered me.My favorite sci-fi BOOK is probably a lovely little novella I read last year called "Killing Snow". ;) (winking at you because YOU WROTE IT, but don't take that smiley-face to mean I'm not serious)

That snippet really FREAKED ME OUT though!! Will you e-mail me and tell me what name you edited out?? Please?? *puppy dog eyes* I'll look for snippets for you. . .

AHH, WHAT DID YOU THINK OF A TALE OF TWO CITIES??? I LOVE that book!! <3 (If you didn't like, that's fine. *cough* I happen to be a little insane about Dickens. :))I TOTALLY understand about Emma! I read the whole thing, but it was a tough read! Have you seen any Jane Austen movies? I would recommend the Hollywood Emma and the BBC Pride and Prejudice. I usually prefer books, but the Jane Austen movies are well done and the books can feel a little dry, so I think I prefer those movies (much as I LOVED reading P&P!).

Ooh, yes - Counted Worthy is AMAZING, I love that book. And I read the first two Firmament books, but never got around to the last one. Maybe I should do that ;). (and OH MY WORD, YOU'RE THE BEST, GIRL. What even am I to do with all the niceness? xD *hugs you*)

Oh, whoops - emailed you before I remembered to tell you the name. Oh well, if you can email back and guess correctly, I might tell you ;).

WELL, I was fairly lost for a good portion of the book, but the characters (and the ENDING!) was AMAZING. And no, I haven't watched any Jane Austen movies, but maybe I'd like them better than the books - I think I'll try the Sense And Sensibility book next though, seeing as people say that it's pretty good ;).

How was your March?: It was quite good, thank you! I failed writing-wise, but I read twelve books, which I'm insanely proud of. XD Do you have any suggestions for good dystopian/sci-fi books?: Mine? :P Just kidding! Well, the obvious dystopian ones are Divergent and The Hunger Games... The Ender's Game is very sci-fi (so I've heard). What are your plans for April, writer-ly or otherwise?: I plan to write 17.5K words for a novel I will discontinue after Camp (hopefully???), write a poem a day, and brainstorm more ideas for my newest story idea.

I really enjoyed your recap post! Love your snippet -- it's so well written! And WOW! 49K in a month is a lot! Congrats to you! :D

I have started a new book (I know, TOO MUCH plot bunnies). It is one of those First Person journal things.... lol. It's doing great, so far! Seriously tho, I just started like.... twenty minutes ago, and I have the whole plot planned-out and have written three pages... lol!

Dude, you are a boss *blinks* almost 50k words?? SO IMPRESSED. I wrote (well, edited) about 10k *sheepish grin* Let's see if I can hit 50k this month ... *is doubtful but THAT'S WHAT NANO IS ALL ABOUT, EH?*

YOU WROTE 49K WORDS IN MARCH??????? SAVANNAH. YOU ARE A WRITING NINJA!!!!! Oh my goodness, you are amaziiiiiing!!!!!!! I'm so sorry Killing Snow is killing Sav (XD) but it's exciting you have an outline for it. I'm so in awe of how dedicated you are to this thing! AND I LOVE THE SNIPPET. GAH. This story just sounds so epic!

Ah, the plot bunnies. They do so love to attack when we have other projects we must be working on. >.> (But I want to know more about these plot bunnies of yours, they sound epic. o.o)

I NEED A BRANCH OF SILVER, A BRANCH OF GOLD SO DESPERATELY. *flails* MUST. HAVE. SOON.

Aaaahhhhh, Savannah! You linked to my blog and said the nicest thiiiings. GIRL. I just don't even know what to do with your sweetness! *TACKLE-GLOMPS* (But don't even worry about comments! I mean, LIFE IS BUSY. AND you've been accidentally doing NaNo. o.o You've got a lot going on, girl! Blog comments are not number one priority.)

I hope Camp is absolutely magical for you and your April is amazing!!! <3 <3 <3

Well, I DO have my secret little dragon-muse to help me. He types the words for me when I'm too busy, and then I have to come back and fix what he wreaked xD. And THANK YOU, Lauri! Even if it's killing me, I'm still excited about this thing :P.

Maybe I'll spill and let you guys know about that at some point or another - unless, of course, the plot decides to go and die on me. That happens sometimes xD.

YES, YES - OOH, I think you would love it! It seems like something you would enjoy ;).

*TACKLE-GLOMPS YOU BACK* xD Seriously though, your post about the Dragon was THE BEST, I LOVED IT. <3 <3 <3

Hey, Savannah. I know this isn't related to this post but I've been trying to make my picture's borders to be transparent. Even though I try to change it in the settings, it doesn't seem to change it. I noticed that the pictures in your blog have noborder. Do you mind telling me how you do it?

I love your blog, Savannah! <3 However, I am not very writer-ly or reaader-ly. I read some educational books, and mystery/midwifery/missionary books, but not much else. I'm more of a crafty-like and action person! Nonetheless, I love your blog! You are so gorgeous! <333I hope that all goes super awesome with Nano-wrimo and you are successful with your novel! I love the title, "Killing Snow"!!!

Aw, thank you - you're so sweet <3. And I'm glad that you enjoy my blog, even if you're not a terribly writer-ly or reader-ly ;). It's cool that you're a crafty person! I'm definitely not, so I'm always in awe of people who can make the coolest things with just some craft supplies :D.